I’d like to see the reaction of Austrian upon learning they are suddenly Eastern European. It will be news to them.
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Very much this. I was already pretty dumbstruck! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
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No need for that elaborative map. Isn’t it quite obvious from the name of Austria in German, Österrich that it must be part of Eastern Europe? And yes, parts of Italy was under the rule of the empire, could make sense to count those areas as Eastern Europe as well, or not? ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
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My bad, bro.
I must have subconsciously assumed that you were an Ilsa or an Elka, with a toddler in tow.
Just out of curiosity, is your name derived from an Uralic tongue, such as Hungarian or Finnish?
I find it a bit weird you’re asking whether a Finnish person (with a quite typical Finnish name) has a Hungarian or Finnish name. 
Can’t help you on the wine, but I coincidentally saw a post by a renowned foodie on Umaschfish Bar in Vienna. You may want to check that out - could go well with the Austrian whites.
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I have been intending to write a short report of our trip but damn it is hard to find time nowadays. The trip went super well, without only a few exceptions our kiddo was a good sport and seemed to enjoy Vienna quite a bit. It really is a superb city to visit with a child. We could easily go to a different playground every time and moving around with the stroller using the public transportation was super easy and convenient. The Euro heatwave didn’t reach Vienna during our time there so we got to enjoy a nice 20-25 degrees Celsius weather.
Here are some pictures and commentary:
A fine 2019 Nigl Ried Hochäcker Privat Riesling was the wine of choice in the Eulennest wine bar. IG note:
Super minerally and saline on the nose with notes of green apple, lime and flowers reminiscent of Muscat. On the palate medium bodied, focused and firm with tangy green fruit and a very salty drive. Dry, crisp and positively nervous. Very elegant and stylish, impeccably balanced and drinkable with still lots to come. A powerful and even a bit muscular wine but not especially ripe or big, understated rather. A beauty.
Regarding the discussion in this thread there was ripeness to this one but really it was a savory wine first and foremost. In many ways an ideal style of Austrian Riesling in my books.
Eulennest has been run by a lovely couple for 13 years if I can remember correctly. Super nice people and a welcome change of pace from many too cool natural wine bars one comes across nowadays. No tattoos, no comic book labels on the bottles, but just a very professionally run place with a good selection of wines. It is a shop as well and I bought some bottles to go from Preisinger, Hirtzberger and Hirsch. The steak tartare was really tasty - I had not seen butter serves alongside it before but why not - as were the charcuterie and cheese. Good glasses (Zalto?) as well and the most pleasant location in a nice neighborhood full of restaurants. The lady owner gave my son some gummy bears which was a nice gesture even if we are not feeding him candy yet.
Not a wine place but an Italian joint called Casolaro Bros had perhaps the best panini ever and the pistacchio tiramisu was fantastic as well. A great place for a quick lunch, not too far away from our hotel which was next to the Belvedere Schlossgarten.
We hadn’t planned it but one day we just ended up near the northern outskirts of the city so decided to go see some of the vineyards. Quickly it got too steep for the stroller so we didn’t go much further. I believe it is the Nussberg vineyard in the picture.
The Mayer am Pfarrplatz heuriger was well within reach though so that’s where we headed for lunch. The place was nice for sure but the food wasn’t anything special. I had the Wiener Schnitzel vom Kalb and it made me crave for a better one.
They had the winery’s best wines available by the glass so I decided to go for a comparison between the Riesling and the Wiener Gemischter Satz from the same Preussen lieu-dit of the Nussberg vineyard, vintage 2020. Notes:
The 2020 Wiener Gemischter Satz is restrained on the nose with herbal and nettley aromas. Bright and delicate, nice. On the palate mid bodied and very firm with an intense, tangy entry. Beautiful acidity carries laser-like throughout to the salty, mouth puckering finish. A super savory, structured wine that is not at all about fruit. There is some very attractive spiciness to it. A wine that requires attention but intriguing and of high quality.
The Riesling from same vintage and plot has a spicy, pungeant nose with attractive peach-laden fruit. It also has a creamy, nutty quality that is wonderful. Excellent mouthfeel - rich yet compact and linear. Again very intense with strong acidic spine. A very very firm, chiselled wine with a highly savory feel. Excellent lingering finish. Very stony, tight style, I really like it.
Happy to taste both wines and a get a feel of the region’s wines which I have not tasted a lot thus far.
Next day went to the Museumsquartier and Zoom Children’s Musem where they had options for children of all ages. It was really a blast for our little man, highly recommended. The area in general is a great place to spend time in.
Tement is one of the producers and Steiermark one of the regions that was recommended here. When we walked into one of the Wein & Co shops we were quickly approached by a staff member who took me to their in-store bar where they were pouring samples for free. Lucky me as one of the wines was a particularly interesting one: Tement’s 2018 Sernau König Steinfass Sauvignon Blanc. Aged for 42 months in a stone vessel, it was a Sauvignon Blanc like no other I’ve ever tasted and quite a special one. It was only a small pour but enough to convince me. Not a cheap wine, more than I’ve ever paid for say the Cotat single vineyards, but I couldn’t pass on it. No proper note, only this (lol):
The intensity is absolutely through the roof and you can still taste the salinity after the wine that followed it. Absolutely electric stuff.
Also bought a bottle of the 2013 Jagini Zagersdorf Blaufränkisch - a collaboration from Moric’s Roland Velich and Rosi Schuster’s Hannes Schuster. If you are to believe Otto F and his Cellartracker TN I should be in a for a treat.
As we visited the famous Julius Meinl am Graben shop in the city center I had to check the wine section there as well and ended up walking out with a bottle of Tement’s 2019 Steinbach Fürst Gelber Muskateller. I can’t recall having had a single vineyard Gelber Muskateller before so am definitely excited to try it.
Pub Klemo was a place I had really been looking forward to. They have a separate shop as well that was closing when arrived for our dinner reservation. The bar is small and a very relaxed type of an affair. There was a obvious group of wine geeks having a tasting next to our table. Not sure what they were drinking but they were offering two 6 wine tasting at the time: a Mencia one and a Coteaux Champenois one. Cool themes, I think.
I wanted to go for a bottle though and it was not an easy choice given that they have a really vast selection of wines both from Austria and France, for example a good number of aged bottles from Veyder-Malberg which was among the wineries recommended here. But then it’s always about what’s the hardest bottle to find (for your budget) and pricing and I decided that this time it was the 2016 Domaine du Collier Saumur Blanc at just below 80 €. A smart choice, I reckon:
Hauntingly expressive on the nose with baked apple, honeyed tones, a wet wool/almond thing and a distinctly stony character. Smells incredibly noble, complex and layered. Quite broad and mouthfilling with a fine texture and well integrated acidity. Excellent use of oak, giving the wine an airy feel. Supremely balanced with a spicy edge and very long finish. A rare combo of being very substantial and having quite little weight. Dry but not one bit austere. Burgundian and then not really at all. Very singular style. Power with unusual grace. All about texture, presence and staying power. One of the best dry Chenins I’ve had for sure.
Again we had some appetizers plus some tagliatelle dishes. The woman running the show was absolutely wonderful, giving a lot of attention to our kiddo as well. Had a sense of humor too, with the text on her shirt asking: “I shaved my balls for this???”.
I bought a bottle of the 2014 Lafarge Volnay Vendanges Selectionnees to go, but could have bought a cellar’s worth of stuff here, really. They have an online shop so I just might become a regular customer of theirs in the future.
At some point we managed to walk past a restaurant in the Innere Stadt with Augustiner branding. This is something rather rare as this brewery is known for not exporting. I went to check the place online and was happy to see that 1) they offer proper Austrian food 2) have a rather good wine list. The list had plenty of good choices but I had never tried anything from the Tradition series from Schloss Gobelsburg so went for the Grüner.
Tropically ripe fruited on the nose with tinned pineapple, yellow apple and spices. Has a sort of hard candy character, very nice. Markedly lively with an attractive emerging nutty/smoky oak nuance. Quite full bodied and rich with some warmth and spiciness. Dry and savory yet with the kind of ripe fruit that makes it seem less dry. Somewhat a Burgundian, caressing yet firm mouthfeel with great acidity. Powerful and muscular but well balanced and extremely delicious. Very lengthy finish. There is clear development going on in the glass: the fruit recedes and it takes on a more savory, again Burgundian character. An excellent wine and good value too. I enjoyed what it presented in the beginning but it only became better over the meal.
The schnitzel was everything I had hoped for and more. The waiter asked whether we wanted to have cranberry sauce served alongside and we said yes without really expecting it to add much. Turns out we were very wrong as the combination of flavors was heavenly and the wine actually really worked with with the sauce too. While the previous schnitzel had been dry and short on meat this one was neither and I was in heaven. This dish together with the wine was simply perfection, nothing could have improved the experience.
We of course had to order apfelstrudel which was served generously with both whipped cream and vanilla sauce. The strudel could have been richer but it was delicious nevertheless. Has to be mentioned that the kind waiter gave our son a pretzel!
As for the branding this place indeed offers I believe all the beers from the great Augustiner brewery and while we had none on this meal we managed to forget our son’s water bottle so had to return the next day which offered us a convenient chance for me to try the Pils for the first time ever. I knew the Helles and the Edelstoff are fantastic so was not expecting anything less and the Pils delivered for sure. Lot’s of good breweries in Germany and Bavaria but I understand well why this one is so revered.
We had a few other dinners that are not really worth bringing up here, even if we didn’t really have one single letdown. For our final two days we would have wanted to go to the MAST Winebistro but, alas, it was closed.
Other nice spots to mention:
Schelato: massively delicious gelato with cool names for flavors like “Hazelnut from Piemonte”, “Lemon from Amalfi” etc.
Espresso Bar: a natural wine bar and a café with a pretty weirdly generic name all things considered. Didn’t try any natural wine but had the best coffee of the trip and a fantastic omelette.
Pizzeria Pozzuoli: Very affordable and high quality Neapolitan pizzas and Augustiner Helles, a winning combination. Went there twice on this trip simply for the conveniency. Love the atmosphere with the cooks singing along the music videos played on Youtube.
What can I say - Vienna is one of the best cities out there and I can’t wait to return again. Not the most wine focused trip ever but I was definitely happy with what we were able to drink and by to take home. And most importantly it was great to see our son have such a good time, looks like there will be no problem traveling with him in the future in a way we are used to and not settle for all inclusive resorts like so many of friends with small kids.
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Great write-up. By the way (and particularly for you as a Scandinavian): that “cranberry” sauce is really lingonberry (although it seems like some English speakers do call those mountain cranberries). Germans are taught that “Preiselbeeren” are cranberries, but that is a different berry. I also agree; it doesn’t seem like it should go with Wiener Schnitzel but it the tartness really works well.
I am glad you had such a great trip!
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Thanks! You are of course absolutely right and I meant lingonberry which is indeed very common here in Finland but my English has its limits. Funny enough here Wiener Schnitzel is usually served with a slice of lemon, capers and anchovy. Not quite as great a match 
.
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I have a single bottle of the Collier Saumur–sounds like I won’t be disappointed if I open soon, but curious whether you think there’s much benefit in waiting a few more years?
Well with the caveat that there are without a doubt at least dozens of people here better equipped to answer that question it did seem very much like the sort of dry Chenin that ages very slowly and by age I mean develop. Of course it always depends what phase of development one prefers, we certainly enjoyed it now a ton and it was approachable.